Events

Independent Kurdistan? Perspectives on the non-Arab Middle East

Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 5:30pm

"One Book, One Community" comes to PSU for Jewish Book Month

WHAT: The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies and the University Library at Portland State University present a panel discussion, "Independent Kurdistan? Perspectives on the non-Arab Middle East."

Prof. Michael Weingrad, Judaic Studies’ academic director, will host the panel that will touch on key topics raised by author Ariel Sabar in "My Father’s Paradise," his memoir about his father and Iraqi Kurdistan. Panel participants include author and journalist Michael Totten, Assoc. Prof. James Grehan, director of PSU’s Middle East Studies Center, and Sheida Kharrazi, a member of the local Iranian Kurdish community.

"My Father’s Paradise," by Ariel Sabar, is this year’s Portland Jewish Book Month pick. The memoir takes a personal look at Iraqi Kurdistan before the 1950s, when Jews and Muslims lived side-by-side, as well as an exploration into neo-Aramaic, once the lingua franca of the Kurdish Jews.